The XMM-Newton space observatory has spotted a black hole going ‘full toddler’
SPACE
We all have bad days, committing to a monumental strop here or a display of anger there. But have you ever had a tantrum so bad that you threw an entire galaxy off balance?
Well, that’s what one particularly badly behaved black hole has done and its outburst has been witnessed by the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton space observatory.
Zoom in on the centre of every large galaxy and you’ll find a supermassive black hole, drawing in matter from its surroundings with its immense gravity. As the material spirals inwards, it’s crushed into what’s known as an accretion disc – a flat disc of dust and gas that orbits the black hole’s event horizon.
Over time, all the material closest to the black hole crosses the event horizon – the point of no return – and gets devoured by the black hole. But there’s a twist: black holes only consume a fraction of the gas they take in, spitting the rest of it back out into space.
Occasionally, just like the temperamental black hole the XMM-Newton spotted, a black hole doesn’t just spit out a bit of gas – it spits out its entire meal. Gas in the accretion disc gets flung out in all directions at such high speeds that it completely clears out the surrounding interstellar gas.
The effects of this are massive, the gas blasting an area through space where new stars can no longer form. This completely changes the landscape of the galaxy surrounding the black hole.
Normally, it’s onl
